Solar Air Heating Metal Roofing for Reroofing, New Construction, and Retrofit
Abstract
The Department of Defense (DoD) has nearly 2 billion square feet (ft2) of building space under roof that require energy for heating, i.e., space heat, water heat, and equipment heat. The total operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses for DoD buildings are very high with the two largest recurring expenses for DoD facility operations being: 1. Annual heating energy bills: ~$1.28/square foot (ft2) of occupied space/year (2006), and 2. Infrequent, but expensive, re-roofing of buildings: ~$0.67/ft2 of roof/year (~$10/ft2 of roof approximately every 15th year). With over 570,000 buildings and 1.9 billion ft2 of occupied space, DoD s annual heating bills are $2.4 billion (2006) out of a $4 billion total energy bill. Roofing expenses are about $640 million per year. To reduce the impact of energy used to heat buildings and reduce roofing expenses, American Solar, Inc. (ASI) demonstrated the benefits of using a Solar Air Heating Metal Roof over continued repair and replacement of built up roofs (BUR) at the Gaffney Fitness Center, located at Fort Meade, Maryland. The solar air heating metal roofing system uses conventional metal roofing in a traditional, code-approved manner to provide a long life roof as well as a solar air heating collector. The dual use of the roofing system as both a weather barrier and a solar thermal collector greatly reduces the cost of collecting solar energy for heating. The solar air metal roof saves over $5000 annually and $189,000 over the 30-year life of the 9275 ft2 roof. The demonstration of the solar roof showed that the system can consistently provide solar heat to the outside air intakes, directly to the building, and to the hot water system. The system also reduces both unwanted heat losses in the winter and undesirable heat gain in the summer. The testing and analysis portion of the demonstration created a first of its kind analytical performance model of an unglazed, cost-effective solar air heating metal roof.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA602232
Entities
Organizations
- Environmental Security Technology Certification Program